Contractors’ Day, 16-17 June 2008

Contractors’ Day, 16-17 June 2008

to the Framework Partnership Agreement & the Specific Grant Agreement

Financial Guidelines

for co-ordinators and co-partners

Eligible CostsEligible Costs

Eligible Direct CostsEligible Direct Costs Eligible Indirect CostsEligible Indirect Costs

To be eligible for Community funding, costs must satisfy the following criteria:

1. related and connected to the subject of the SGA

2. included in the estimated budget

3. necessary for the fulfillment of the action

4. generated during the duration of the action

5. reasonable, justified, consistent with your usual internal rules

6. identifiable, verifiable and determined in accordance with the relevant accounting principles

7. actually incurred by the beneficiary and recorded in the accounts

8. be substantiated by proper evidence

Eligible Costs

What are eligible costs?

Eligible Costs Categories

Direct Costs Indirect Costs

PersonnelTravels and subsistenceSub-contractingOther specific costs

Eligible Indirect costs

Ineligible CostsIneligible Costs

Any costs that do not satisfy one of the criteria of eligibility:

Examples - value of contributions in kind; "return on capital employed", including dividends and other distributions of

profits; interest owed; costs declared in another Community-funded grant;

Value Added Tax (VAT) cannot be claimed unless the partner can show that he is unable to recover it. More specifically, the partner must obtain from their local tax authority a document justifying why the partner cannot claim the reimbursement of the VAT.

Ineligible Costs

What are ineligible costs?

Ineligible Costs

Indirect costs which are not eligible when beneficiary is in receipt of an operating grant financed from the

Community budget during the duration of the action mentioned in the SGA.

Any amount that exceeds the flat rate of maximum 30% for the total eligible personnel costs.

Cost categories in detail








Personnel

Cost categories in detail Eligible direct costs

Permanent and temporary staff that are registered under a payroll system of the partner in question and are charged to its employment costs

Such persons must be: directly employed by the co-ordinator or co-partner in accordance with

his/her national law; under the partner’s sole technical supervision; remunerated in accordance with the normal practices of the partner

provided these are acceptable to the EACI

Type of staff not included in the category “Personnel” consultants including in-house consultants Persons, employed under a temporary staffing agreement


PersonnelPersonnel costs include:

remuneration; social charges (pensions, health insurance and other employment costs); by the persons directly carrying out the work under the action

The number of hours worked must be recorded in “timesheets” throughout the duration of the action

Timesheets: personnel's time spent on the action and all other time on a daily basis signed and verified by the staff member signed by superior staff member as authorisation on a regular basis



PersonnelTravels & subsistenceSub-contractingOther specific costs



Travel and Subsistence Should be in line with the partner’s usual practices on travel costs

Or should not exceed the scales of daily subsistence allowances approved annually by the European Commission

Must be foreseen in the partner’s budget table (Annex II of SGA)

Travel costs of sub-contractors, if applicable, should be included in the sub-contracting






Sub-contracting May only cover the execution of a limited part of the action

Awarded with the conditions set out in Article II.10 of the FPA

Must be identified in the Work Programme of the SGA : if not foreseen and exceeding EUR 25,000 : subject to prior written authorisation of EACI

Copies of the invoices, certified by the partner, are to be submitted to the EACI with the corresponding financial statement (cost statements)

Supporting documentation should be kept in the partner’s files and provided at the EACI’s request


Sub-contracting Costs entailed by sub-contracts awarded by a partner are :

Cost (in-house) consultants, the consultants costs may not exceed 20 % of the sum of all other eligible costs

Cost of communication and promotion of the action

Costs of events, organised by partners in the context of the action and costs for participation to events organised by third parties.






Other specific costs cost of the financial guarantee

cost of the audit cerficate

Any other costs may be considered eligible provided that they are strictly necessary for carrying out the action and subject to prior written approval of the EACI.





Cost categories in detail Eligible indirect costs

DefinitionCosts considered un-identifiable as specific costs directly linked to the implementation of the action

Modelis a flat rate of maximum 30 % of the total eligible personnel costs.

Example: Partner A

Total eligible personnel costs = 2.6M€Indirect cost = 23% of the total eligible personnel

costs

If Partner A declares more than 23% for indirect costs,the difference is considered as ineligible costs

Contractors’ Day, 16-17 June 2008

Thank you for your attention

That concludes the financial guidelines presentation

Documents

Contractors’ Day, 16-17 June 2008